Where did this expression come from? or more specifically, why is it not “8 to 5.” As long as I can remember, and as long as people older than me can remember, the typical workday is 8 to 5. Working 9 to 5, with time in-between for lunch, is not even a full time schedule!
What’s the deal?
Just a WAG, but which became popular first, the phrase or the song of the same?
It’s just that “Working 8:30 to 5:30 with a one hour unpaid lunch period, what a way to make a living…” just doesn’t scan so well. 
What’s the earliest point to which the phrase can be dated?
I figure the expression came from New York. Thirty-five hours is a standard work week in New York.
It is?
Damn. I better tell that to my boss.
Just a WAG, but which became popular first, the phrase or the song of the same?
The phrase, by a long shot (decades).
Okay. I’ll have to go back to work to find it…but Franklin D. signed the 40 hour work week in 1940. Oct. 24 is the anniversary, I believe.
9 to 5 makes the 8 hour work day.
The phrase. Cartoonist Jo Fischer did a panel called “From Nine to Five” at least as early as 1946. It was still running when I began reading the {U}Cleveland Press comic section in the late 1960’s. The Press was an afternoon newspaper (how many of those are still around?), stereotyped as the “workingman’s alternative” to the more patrician Plain Dealer, a morning publication which now pretty much enjoys a monopoly in the home of the Indians and Browns. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that the Press featured a panel devoted to gags involving secretary/stenographer types.
A Google search brought up precious little confirmation that “From Nine to Five” indeed existed, but the linked list indicates that at least a few examples of the cartoon have survived:
I don’t know if the phrase “nine to five” originated in the US or the UK (or elsewhere), but here in the UK very few office workers start the day before 9am, and 9.30am is not uncommon. I think 8am starts are far more usual in the US - certainly I get the impression that Americans are earlier risers in general.
r_“wake me at 9.15”_k
yes i’m with r_k here ( but I could not post last night). Although (in the U.K.) an 08.30 start is now not unusual, it’s true that, for office workers anyway, 09.00 would be more common. Not too sure about getting to leave at 17.00 though. 
I found 17.30 a lot more common, (leaving aside the fact that one often stays later anyway.)
Well I work in the UK and have always worked 9-5 (approx) with a half hour for lunch. Works out as a 37.5 hour working week, which I think is standard over here (public sector anyway).
It seems that as you go farther west in the U.S.A. The earlier people start work. In Colorado a 9am start is pretty much unheard of. Most people start at 8am. I start at 7am (office job) and work till 3:30. Works great for me. I can’t imagine starting as late as 9.
I think a lot of this has to do with time zones. I work in NYC, and I get in around 9. I notice my law firm’s offices in CST get going around 8, partially because it makes it easier to coordinate with NY. Since so much of the population is clustered on the eastern seaboard, rising earlier as you move west makes sense (all bets are off by the time you reach PST, though).
Banker’s hours … banks in the United States open at 9 or 10 AM, and typically close at 5:00 PM.
When I was living in Colorado, public sector work hours were between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM.
Except, when the phrase originated, probably in the US before the 1950’s, banks were open from 9-1 or 9-3. While a manager might have worked til 5, the tellers didn’t.
Sternvogel Thanks for finding that link to Jo Fischer. That predates some of my possiblities. It’s a phrase rather than a slang term, so many of my references don’t help.
It was my understanding that the 9 to 3 for banks was because that they had to spend a good 2 hours or so to count the money and do all the paperwork on the transactions that day. This work was done in part by the tellers so they did indeed stay until 5.
I was a teller when banks closed at three. On a good day, we left at five.
I was a teller when banks opened at 9:30 and closed at 3:00 and rarely stayed past 3:15 which by then all the cash was counted, we had balanced the books and completed the paperwork.
Oh, the memories, and apologies for the hijack.